


A Shadow Rises

by MeganOfSaints



Series: A Shadow Rises [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Amnesia, Assassins, Awoken (Destiny) - Freeform, Awoken Guardian (Destiny) - Freeform, Darkness, F/M, Forgotten Memories, Manipulation, Marriage, POV Female Character, Temporary Amnesia, The Author Regrets Nothing, Weapons of Sorrow, Wish Magic, calus, crown of sorrow, emperor calus - Freeform, hints of sex, mature themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:41:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22997854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganOfSaints/pseuds/MeganOfSaints
Summary: A new guardian, with visions from the Traveler of Calus and the Cabal. Of a small awoken infant whom she never knew, but seems to recognize its cries. To find out what happened and why Cayde-6 despises her for what she is, she will travel to the Crown of Sorrow and defeat Gahlran with her fireteam, only to find darkness and manipulation. She would become a tool for the Emperor and become one of his Elite members of his personal guard and his favorite Guardian. She would become A Shadow, seemingly transforming to pay off a past debt. And prove herself to her Vanguard, to Calus, and to herself.
Relationships: Female Guardian & Ghost (Destiny), Female Guardian/Original Awoken Character(s) (Destiny), Ikora Rey/Original Female Character(s), Original Awoken Character(s) (Destiny)/Original Human Character(s)
Series: A Shadow Rises [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652779
Kudos: 7





	A Shadow Rises

_**Chapter 1:** _

Down in the depth of the Leviathan where darkness clings to the edges of torch lights, where even shadows themselves cower in fear of the rising void, Feyea is transmated to the entrance of a chilly chamber with ceilings as tall as the stars. The scent of the air was akin to acrid, salty sea air with a hint of death. Treasure, both old and new, lay scattered across the floor. Diamond necklaces as large as her rifle hung against the pillars to her right. Pots gilded with silver and gold, enough to charm even Mara Sov, lay shattered against each other like a battle between who was more beautiful had taken place between the ceramics. She was grateful for the steel-tipped boots she wore lest she would have shards of clay sticking out from her foot. She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she watched her fireteam drop into the room next to her, their helmet visors opening in awe of the grandeur of the Palace. Or perhaps what once use to be the grandeur of a hall. Now it was toppled with gravel from the dust of pillars that once stood mighty against the wall.

“What a dump.” Kirk wrinkled his brow and kicked a broken pot, the sound of ceramic against stone tile echoing across the chamber.

“Oh, it’s not so bad,” Feyea responded but even she wasn’t convinced of the once well-known majesty of the Palace built to honor the Emperor. She advanced into the hallway connecting this chamber to the entrance of the next. A visage of Calus entered her vision and his hand directed them the direction they were supposed to go to end his once-great ally. She could still see the golden invitation handed to her by Cayde-6. He had warned her of the danger to herself and her fireteam if they entered the Menagerie. However, when she brought up the chance for riches and spoils beyond all imagination, it wasn’t hard to convince them.

Two pitch-black knights greeted her inside the entrance of the Menagerie depths and she stepped into the blazing pool of green light to embrace the witch's blessing.

::: ::: :::

Kicking the last thrall off the ledge, she kicked her booster pack into gear as she traversed over the long chasm separating the menagerie from the kingdom of sorrow. Calus’ invitation detailed what they would find down here. She found herself easily tracing the swirls around the crystals hovering in the air above the pedestals. They made quick work of jumping from section to section before entering the treasure room. Miles and miles of golden liquid spilled out into her view. She heard Kirk and the rest of her fireteam gasp in awe of the massive hoard in front of them. For a moment, the golden treasure wasn’t what caught her eye. Her eye was drawn to the effigy of Calus which stood over the treasure room, a silent guardian watching its lifetime achievement just rot away in the darkness. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted a small pool of purple running through the treasure room. Within the purple sludge, she swore she caught the glimpse of a dark vein through it, a shadowy tendril of some kind. Was something watching them? The hackles on the back of her neck stood on end and she gripped her rifle a little tighter.

As they descended into the treasure room, she glimpsed once more at the statue of Calus and wondered why the invitation had been specifically directed towards her fireteam. With the edges of the Cabal incursion lingering on the outside of the Last City for days, she wondered why all of a sudden Benedict had come to them with royal greetings. Cayde had been wondering as well but only seemed to warn them and not question it. Ikora thought it would be better to keep our enemies close and humor Calus’s request instead of turning a blind eye from it. She said it was the direction of the Traveler for them to investigate it. But one part of the letter seemed to perturb her: _Go down to the place where I was reborn. Where_ you _were reborn. Welcome to the Menagerie._ Feyea had asked Benedict about the wording of the letter but the response she received was less than helpful.

Where _you_ were reborn.

Was that why the spirals of the crystals were so familiar to her? Was this where she existed before she was a Guardian. The thought sent a chill down her spine but her thoughts were cut short by Kirk calling her to the center of the treasure room to thrash some hive. She gazed upon the visage of Gahlran standing in the far back and the green flash of his crown triggered her vision to haze slightly.

_Heavy breathing._

_Bare feet slapping against cold stone tile at a fast pace._

_A cold, bright green hand coming toward her._

She blinked the haze out of her eyes and Kirk looked to her, concerned about her ability to focus. “You a’ight there?”

She shook her vision but every time she looked at Gahlran, she seemed to have double vision. A terrible foresight and hindsight. It was giving her a headache. She nodded and said, “Let’s make this quick. I don’t have all day to stare at this ugly motherfucker.” Kirk grinned at her and planted a flag, the well-lit magic of the traveler sanctifying all of them in its great light. She felt a rush of heat travel from her toes to the tops of her ears and she felt her knives dancing on the edges of her fingertips. She stood at the helm of her group and gave a battle cry as well as a blast of radiant energy as she set the arena on fire.

::: ::: :::

As the monstrous crown of sorrow toppled to the floor, a silence fell over the fireteam. Kirk scooted around the crown, sprinting for the glowing chest that seemed to appear out of nowhere. As if Calus was watching them the whole time and dropped the gold exactly when they did as he asked.

Feyea turned around, the loot was forgotten as she gazed at the statue of Calus only five hundred feet from her, towering over the arena. His eyes were centered on a point off to the left but the hand which had been pointing to the left earlier now was pointing to the crown. As if to signal something.

As if to signal her awakening.

In a flash of inky darkness, the arena dimmed and her vision doubled. She felt a coil of movement around her ankle and as she looked down, a veil consumed her gaze. Inky tendrils of darkness covered her icy blue skin, sinking into her pores like oil seeps through metal grates. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t move. She witnessed in silent horror as the darkness consumed her. 

It took her back to a time before The Light of the Traveler ever found her.

_Cold._

_Cold beyond all imagining seeped into her bones and held her hostage in its icy embrace. Her eyelids were frozen shut. She couldn’t blink to open her eyes but she could feel the heat of a torch against her skin. She could feel it pass over her chest as if someone was trying to visualize the sight of her encased in ice before them._

_A roving band of fighters found her half-melted from the ice; her icy blue skin enhanced with permafrost along her cheekbones. One of them whispered, female by the cadence, “Is she dead?”_

_“No, watch her. Her eyes move under her sleep. She is yet to be saved.” Another female voice responded, older and wiser by the sound of it._

_“It is a miracle that she breathes. How will we save her?”_

_“Get my ax. We must remove her quickly if she is to live.” The wise female voice called._

_It took what felt like days for them to remove her body from the ice. The axe jostled the ice around her and her fear doubled._ Perhaps they intended to kill her before trying to remove her. Perhaps they would aim and miss their target and harm her in the process. _As the ice was removed from her body, her skin was hit with the newly felt fresh air of the arctic winds. It felt warmer than the material that surrounded her. The last chunk of ice was removed from her body and the sensation of falling was stopped by a set of warm arms, multiple sets._

_“She’s heavier than I thought she would be.”_

_“She’s not of this world. Look at her skin. No human has that tone of blood.” The wise woman said. “Come. Let’s make camp and warm her. Perhaps she will wake in time.”_

_“What if she never wakes?” Another voice asked, deeper and with a stronger rhythm._

_“We will leave that up to the Gods.” She answered, “For now, we will do what we can.”_

::: ::: :::

_It was hours later before her joints unstiffened and her nerves came back to life. First in her toes and then up into her knees and up to her elbows. She twitched and tried to shake the sensation back to her extremities. A strong warmth was off to her left and she turned to the source, finding that her spine cracked in multiple places before setting itself upright. Five sets of eyes turned to her as she attempted to sit. One gentle human female reached for her but she flinched away from the touch, finding that her touch was too hot for her temperature. They sat a distance away after that, letting her adjust to her new surroundings._

_“Are you cold, child?” The wise woman spoke._

_Feyea looked to the direction of the voice and saw a small woman with soft, wrinkled skin and gentle green eyes. Her hair was greying from the roots but a chestnut brown bled down to the ends of her hair which was tied into a bun at the base of her skull. A fur wrap encased her head and covered her ears to protect her from the cold. She looked to the others of the group. Two other females, both human in nature. One with dark brown skin and the other with pale yellow skin. Two human males sat next to them, one with reddish-brown skin and the other with ghostly white skin. Feyea looked to the woman with green eyes and said,_

_“I feel stiff.”_

_They seemed surprised that she knew their language. She was surprised by the group in front of her. All human. Where were the Awoken she was born to? Where was she?_

_“Where am I?” She asked._

_“The Arctic Circle, the southernmost point. We were traveling across the mountains and saw a peculiar ice formation in the distance. We decided to investigate and found you.”_

_“I’m on earth?” Feyea’s brow wrinkled in confusion. But that was light years away from the Awoken._

_“Yes.” The wise woman said, “How long have you been trapped in the ice?”_

_Feyea shook her head but she had no memory of how she ended up on earth. She frowned, “I don’t know.”_

_The five travelers looked among each other and passed glances between each other. They didn’t know what to do or where to go from there. The wise woman said, “What is your name? Do you remember your name?”_

_“Feyea.” She said, “But that is the only name that was given to me. That is all I remember.”_

_“That’s enough for now. My name is Silna.” The wise woman said, and pointed to the woman with dark brown skin, “This is Melri.” She glanced at the pale white male, “This is Sori.” She gestured to the yellow-skinned one, “That is Thannea,” And she moved to the reddish-brown skinned male, “This is Pelor, my son. We all travel together for protection to get to the Great City of Light. You are welcome to join us if it is to your liking.”_

_“I would like to join you on your journey to the Great City of Light.” Feyea imagined a city of glass, glittering in the sunlight of a new dawn and her heart grew happy with the idea of a home._

_Over the course of the next month, Feyea came to think of Silna as a mother she never knew. They fed her and gave her strength and told her they were traveling a long distance to get to the Great City of Light. Pelor and Sori taught her to wield weapons of wood and of metal. They thought was strange that her skin never returned to the normal human skin tones. But they had heard of robots and aliens that lived in the Great City amongst other humans. She must be like them and must be so lost to be so far from home._

_They traveled for weeks and months, surviving with each other. On the journey south, Feyea developed a connection with Pelor. He seemed to be gentle and kind to her where the others would get tired of her memory loss. He taught her how to stitch hides together to form a coat to ward away the cold. He sat close to her on nights when the temperature dropped to unlivable numbers. He pointed out the constellations and she noted a few familiar star patterns to him, speaking of a home she barely remembered. Where the clouds were pink and the sky was purple. Where the grass was blue and the rocks a ruddy purple in contrast._

_She was happy with them and Pelor sought to protect her at all costs. He gave her his rations and kept her from harm. One night he came back from a scrap mission with a small silver circle. He placed it on her left fourth finger and told her stories of how lovers would claim each other with glittering circles on their fingers. She thought it was pretty when it caught glimpses of sunlight as they walked through valleys and rivers._

_She thanked him every night in the firelight and he asked one day if she would start a family with him. She was told they were perhaps three months away from the Great City and that she would be exhausted from travel. One night she approached Silna and asked her guidance on the matter. Silna told her, “Only do what you want to do.”_

_So, in the soft evening hours of twilight, Feyea laid with Pelor, his soft hands guiding her own and in the morning after their coupling, she glimpsed her familiar constellation on the horizon. She was home._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading. My friends and I are all writing destiny fanfiction and I wanted to get in on the action! Leave me a comment below to let me know if you enjoyed it or if there is something you think would need to be fixed.


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